Article originally found on the WBEZ website at www.wbez.org

When you talk about a digital divide, you’re probably thinking of inner city kids who don’t have ready access to the Internet. But there’s another group that looks at the digital divide with a growing sense of urgency: unemployed workers.

Darlene Williams has been out of work since 2005. During that time, she feels like she’s been left out of the digital revolution.

WILLIAMS: My computer skills as far as navigating on the Internet since I’ve been off work have really really fallen by the wayside.

Williams lives in Englewood, on Chicago’s South Side. She doesn’t have a home computer. That means to actually apply for jobs, Williams has to depend on outside resources like the library or where I met her, at the Family Net Center. It’s Auburn Gresham, one of Chicago’s newest five Smart Communities. But Williams also worries that she just doesn’t have the technological savvy you need these days to land a job.

DARLENE WILLIAMS: It’s actually kind of intimidating! I find that my nieces 8 or 9 are just amazing on a computer. So when I’m sitting there, interviewing, or I’m contemplating going on an interview and I’m sitting there with 22, 23-year-olds. I’m like, ‘Oh no!’. You don’t stand a chance.

MOSSBERGER: We know even the kiosks at Target, places like that, low skilled jobs even, require applying online or in a kiosk.

Karen Mossberger is a public administration professor at University of Illinois at Chicago.

MOSSBERGER: People who don’t have the basic skills to use technology are at a disadvantage for applying for jobs. People who don’t lack those skills are also at a disadvantage when it comes to how much money they make – especially compared with coworkers who have the same level of formal education. Mossberger’s done research that shows even among workers with a high school education, those who use the Internet at work on average make $111 more a week.

She sees digital competency as important not just for individuals, but also for communities and ultimately, the Midwest as a whole as the entire region transitions out of “old economy” jobs that don’t use as much technology.

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